ShoZu does what MMS promised: "Bole reckons ShoZu's popularity has grown sufficiently to encourage both handset vendors and network operators to licence the client. It remains free to the public."

Damn right. It's an interesting app too - independent of operator, content provider or handset vendor, oiling the wheels between customers and useful services. I wonder what other similar things are out there, on the cusp of being released? Simple audioblogging software? Something to tie in cell ID LBS? Something to log all your sent and received text messages onto the network and archive them in perpetuity?

It's all about the Casual Game: "It seems as though many people are just beginning to really understand this concept. They are talking about how the market for mobile games is NOT the same as the gamer market. They are trying to figure out how to create short burst, interesting games which users can play in their free time. However, many of the people in this space are coming at it from a gamers perspective. They are talking about high-end 3D rendering engines, haptic responses, and tactile reflexes. They are using the camera for coordinates or putting real images on character bodies, just because they can. They are thinking about how to create video games. Only mobile video games requiring short interaction times."

Yep. Well - casual games have become a bandwagon over the last year, haven't they? With the result that everyone from XBox 360 down is trying to present themselves as "casual"...

Cute Nintendo DS art and animations (via Mr Melon).

Apple Signals iPhone at MobHappy: "Secondly, the sector for stand alone MP3 players will implode shortly - next year at the latest, but I would say that it may well have peaked already. Outside of a few die-hards, we’ll be listening to our mobiles as our main source for a music player"

I wonder. How many people do *you* know who regularly listen to their music on their mobile phone?

I don't think I know a single one. MP3 players are cheap enough that you can buy one if you want music on-the-go - they don't force you to use bizarre syncing software (well, most don't) in the way that phones do, and you don't lose the ability to call your friends (or be contacted) if you use them a lot.

I'm sceptical about convergence here.

A live band performing Mario soundtracks - cute :)